Dunblane Massacre Resource Page

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Readme/FAQ

This collection of writings and links has evolved from its
original beginning to become, primarily, a means to address my
interest in the concept of the right to keep and bear arms
(RKBA) and its relevance to 21st Century Britain.

I'm a British citizen born, raised, and educated in the The
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK). In
the late 70s and 80s I was a soldier in Britain's Territorial Army,
for a total of approximately ten years. I'm in a minority of the UK
population (an April 2003 opinion poll[1]
suggested it to be in the region of 25%) in being an advocate of
RKBA. That's in spite of RKBA having deep historical roots in the
Constitutional traditions of England and Scotland.

The English roots of RKBA are found in English Common Law, in
documents such as Magna Carta, 1215 and the Bill of Rights of 1688.
The concept reached its ultimate expression in the 2nd Amendment to
the Constitution of the United States of America, which can be
traced back directly to English Common Law traditions. Indeed, the
American and English Legal systems are closely linked even
today.

The Scottish roots are seen in the Claim of Right Act 1689,
Scotland's version of the Bill of Rights of 1688, and in the proud
tradition of the Scottish citizen warrior throughout history, of
song and story and latterly big-budget Hollywood blockbusters.
Certainly we shall not forget the Declaration of Arbroath, 1320.
The Scottish custom of Wappenshaw, when men from the
community mustered with their weapons to demonstrate their
readiness for battle, is still celebrated in some places by
shooting competitions taking that name. The most telling indicator
left today of the tradition of Scotsmen bearing arms is found in
the Skien Dhus being part of the National Dress. The Sgian
Dubh, Gaelic for "black knife," is often claimed merely as a
utility hunting knife - an explanation that fails to account
for why they were hidden, not worn openly on the belt as a hunting
knife usually is, and accordingly of a dark colour to facilitate
this. "Black" is not a reference to colour but connotation of the
knife's use as a weapon of last resort for self-defence.

In spite of several hundred years of common history, English Law
and Scots Law are different and in many fundamental ways separate
and distinct. England and Wales, for all practical purposes, have
been treated as a single unit for legislative purposes; this will
likely change given the Welsh Parliament and devolution. Northern
Ireland has its own legal system, complicated by the troubled
history. In the particular case of firearms laws, currently at
least, the Parliament at Westminster reserves matters pertaining to
weapons and explosives laws to its jurisdiction imposing the same
laws on England (and Wales) and Scotland. Northern Ireland firearms
law is variant: "small weapons" (i.e. handguns) are not, as yet,
banned outright in Northern Ireland in contrast to the other parts
of the UK.

The government department the Home Office and its political
head, the Home Secretary, bears responsibility for determining the
course of the administration of firearms law. In a bizarre echo of
the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the
issuing of Firearms Certificates (FAC), Shot Gun Certificates (SGC)
and Explosive Certificates (required for Black Powder) falls to the
police department in each Police Authority (Police Authority areas
tend to roughly match recognisable Local Government areas but not
necessarily exactly) that also handles the licensing of premises
selling alcohol. Each Police Authority maintains full details of
all law-abiding firearms owners using registration by serial number
of firearm(s) to the owner. After massive delay, England and Wales
were scheduled to have a National Firearms Licensing Management
System (NFLMS) by March 2007, a computer system to allow all forces
access to applicant details. Practices and procedures for
implementing firearms-related law vary in an arbitrary manner
according to local Police Authority choosing in spite of Home
Office direction. In theory, there's tripartite control of policing
matters in a local area: the Police Authority made up of local
politicians, the Home Office, and the Police hierarchy themselves.
How exactly this works out in practise is another matter. In 2007
the Home Office is being reorganised, to be split into two new
ministries - part of the on-going destruction of British
constitutional traditions and laws as a part of the construction of
the pan-European super-state desired by the elite classes.

The Police, as is their nature, when given an inch take a mile:
all sorts of requirements promulgated at the whim of local
licensing authorities but with no actual legal basis are
foisted on law-abiding gun owners. Appeals against police decisions
must be taken to the Crown Court and therefore are an extremely
expensive proposition - and in any case will rarely succeed
whatever their merit.

The arbitrary, time-consuming and baroque nature of the firearms
licensing and registration process consumes an immense amount of
Police manpower and is a major expense and inconvenience for
law-abiding gun owners. Since no practical benefit has ever been
demonstrated - anywhere in the world let alone
Britain - for a firearms registration scheme from the point of
view of the detection and solving of crime one must conclude that
the primary intention is to harass the law-abiding. It appears the
fundamental aim of "firearms controls" in Britain can be found in
the phrase from the McKay Report of 1972 viz, "…we consider the
number of firearms in private hands should be kept to an absolute
minimum."

Writing in 2005 it is the case that for practical purposes
metallic cartridge handguns are banned in Great Britain. A small
number of "Section 5" authorities to hold handguns are issued by
the Home Office for use in the humane destruction of animals
(mostly the culling of deer). It is believed by some RKBA
enthusiasts that a small number of authorities are issued
for self-defence purposes - but not to "ordinary" members of
the public - the Home Office is not forthcoming on this topic.
In the case of very rare prototype and historical guns for
collectors Section 5 authorities may be granted. I don't
have figures as to how many handguns are held on Section 5
authority but I believe it be in the low thousands over the whole
of Great Britain. The use of pistols for target shooting, even if
you're a member of Britain's Olympic Team, does not
qualify you for a Section 5 authority. As of 2007 a few
thousand "Personal Protection Weapon" permits are on issue in
Northern Ireland allowing the carriage of a handgun for
self-defence, although the Labour Government is putting pressure on
the Northern Ireland authorities to reduce or (most likely)
eliminate these.

All mainstream political parties in the UK have pledged, at one
time or another, to maintain the ban on handguns (and usually to
ban more types of guns and gun-like items in general - in 2005
even restricted power air guns were targeted for draconian
"controls"). It's pertinent to note that the British National Party
(BNP) has indicated some support for RKBA. However, much like the
BNP's attempt to recast itself from National Socialist to White
Nationalist, their position is incoherent - and in any case
there appears no likelihood of the BNP achieving any significant
political power. Many suspect the BNP to be a front organisation
controlled by MI5, a Government attempt to maintain control of the
far right in this country and discredit certain political
views.

Great Britain was the only European country to have a handgun
ban until 2008 when it was joined by the Republic of Ireland. It's
unclear how long it will be before the rest of the European Union
follows.

London 2003: Heathrow Airport

Although police officers in general do not carry firearms and
are not trained in their use, the carrying of firearms by police is
widespread: squads of armed policemen patrol major metropolitan
areas in Incident Response Vehicles (IRV). An IRV will be a
high-performance saloon car in traffic police livery. The IRV
typically contains four officers and a variety of firearms and
ancillary equipment: handguns (almost invariably Glock Model 17),
carbines (H&K MP5
semi-auto model), 5.56mm assault rifles (typically H&K Model
93, with G36 becoming fashionable), and 12 bore shot guns.
CS and
baton round launchers and Tasers are also becoming popular. These
are also the tools of teams modeled on the American SWAT units that deal with
incidents in a manner familiar to observers of the American scene
(these teams, often termed "Tactical Operations" or similar, are in
addition to the IRV teams). On occasion, police armed with MP5s and
M93s can be seen standing around outside the High Court in the
centre of my home town of Edinburgh. Snipers are usually deployed
in such a situation, likely armed with Schmidt & Bender scoped
Accuracy International 7.62mm calibre rifles similar to those used
by British Army snipers. Tourists and businessmen will be familiar
with the MP5 toting policemen that routinely patrol Britain's major
airports and the City of London (the "Square Mile"). London's
Metropolitan Police have a dedicated firearms group, the notorious
CO19, comprising around six hundred officers in 2006. CO19 claim to
make a virtue of their "hard-line" attitude and have demonstrable
willingness to shoot first and ask questions later.

There are other armed police services in the UK:

The Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC), formerly the UK Atomic
Energy Authority Police, is concerned with guarding nuclear
installations and convoys carrying nuclear material. CNC are
normally armed in the course of their duties. The six hundred and
fifty plus armed officers of the CNC are accountable to the
Department of Trade and Industry.

The Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) numbered around four
thousand in 2004. MDP should not to be confused with the Royal
Military Police (RMP) who are soldiers with no police powers over
the civilian population. The MDP are all trained to arms and are
usually armed in the course of their duties. The MDP are a true
national police force, the constables have full civilian police
powers. MDP are also deployed internationally, such as in Kosovo.
Given "The War Against Terror" it would be no surprise if the
numbers and the remit of the MDP were to be considerably expanded
in the future. The MDP are accountable to the Ministry of Defence
rather than the Home Office.

The various armed forces operate armed police services, however
they do not have civilian powers as constables.

My ideas have changed somewhat over the years since I
inaugurated this page. Initially I thought the banning of handguns
would have a broadly neutral effect given the fact that RKBA had
been denied in the UK for many decades (though some quibbling about
Northern Ireland could be led here). However, it has become
increasingly clear as time wears on that a central plank of
security and public order is an armed and responsible general
public. Changes in the law in many States of the USA facilitating the carry and
use of handguns for self-defence by private citizens have had an
overwhelmingly positive effect there - American anti-gun
campaigners have been reduced to trying to explain why a drop in
violent crime isn't caused by citizens being allowed to defend
themselves with legal firearms (or claiming that guns being used as
a means of suicide justifies disarming the law-abiding)[2]. The increasingly deteriorating position in the UK as
regards violent crime is hard to ignore, particularly in contrast
to the situation in the USA and Switzerland. In 2005 the TV
Programme "MacIntyre's Underworld," after a six-month study of the
violent gang wars raging in Glasgow, revealed to viewers that
Glasgow's homicide rate is the highest in Europe and in fact higher
than New York.[3]

IMHO there
is, effectively, no on-going public debate about RKBA in the UK.
The UK media organisations are extremely anti-gun, to the point of
headlining shooting incidents in the USA above shooting incidents
in the UK to minimise the latter. The United Nations is very
actively propagandising for global civilian disarmament, bizarrely
claiming it's servicing "human rights" by doing so. The pervasive
anti-gun propaganda is a serious problem, I believe especially with
regards to the younger generations. Although young people don't
vote in great numbers they are, after all, the ones with most to
lose. Young people are the most susceptible to propaganda because
they don't have the life experience to recognise propaganda for the
lies it is - they need to hear honest argument about RKBA. (As
well as being introduced to the failings of argument by anecdote
and how to use statistics and logic: the manifest problems of the
contemporary British education system are a hot-button topic of
public debate.)

As to the bogus "sporting purposes" posturing, I agree with
Nietzsche -

"The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of
defending it deliberately with faulty arguments."

Guns are weapons. Deal with it.

All the anti-gun arguments I've seen are predicated on the
belief that only the government may legitimately use deadly force
to maintain public order and safety. It is clear to me this is on
the face of it wrong as a philosophy and wrong in the context of
the British tradition. It also explains why, given the empirical
evidence that banning guns leads to increasing violent crime and
victimisation of law-abiding citizens, politicians and agents of
the government aren't concerned. Protection of the public isn't the
point of the exercise. Control of you and your life
choices is the point. Isn't it paradoxical to entrust the
nation's welfare to the decisions of voters whom the law itself
considers incapable of managing their own affairs?

By now so much has been invested in banning guns by the people
who've worked for it for various reasons that the anti-gun forces
are extremely entrenched and unlikely to see the light. In
addition, and to me the most disheartening aspect of the whole
sorry story, stupendously pathetic has been the response of the
vast majority of firearms owners in the UK. I indict the "shooting
community" of this country as having the major blame for the sorry
pass we're in as regards gun law and RKBA. You can't expect
politicians to do anything other than work to make people dependent
on the State, it's in their best interest. The people who've lost
loved ones to death by shooting are bound to want to do something,
however inappropriate in objective terms, to try to assuage the
guilt they feel about that loss. But the very group of people who
should have been shouting loudest about RKBA in this
country have been the most acquiescent to the continual increase in
State powers. In fact, the pleasure the typical FAC holder (what
you might term "licensed gun owner") takes in being a member of the
government-sanctioned elite is one of the most obnoxious things
I've ever come across in other people and the only demerit I've
found about shooting as a sport. Contrast that to the kind of
people you meet when shooting or at gun shows in the USA who
(largely) genuinely fit the term "salt of the earth."

The most comprehensive and comprehensible single essay that
encapsulates most of what I understand about how the process of
politics erases peoples' liberties is, "All the Way Down the
Slippery Slope: Gun Prohibition in England and Some Lessons for
Civil Liberties in America."[4] If you read
nothing else linked on this site, read that.

There are several megs of files on this site, not to mention
linking, an awful lot of material. I just wish I had that magic
bullet that could make all that information and knowledge easily
accessible to you so's you would understand too. I don't, you have
to read, argue, and think for yourself.

Perhaps the fact that so few people nowadays appear capable of
thinking for themselves is the one telling argument against RKBA.
How eager you are to become slaves.

"Me, I'm too busy dodging between the
flak
What you see is what you get
You've made your bed, you better lie in it
You choose your leaders and place your trust
As their lies wash you down and their promises rustYou'll see kidney
machines replaced by rockets and guns
And the public wants what the public gets
But I don't get what this society wants"
···
"We talk and talk until my head explodes
I turn on the news and my body froze
The braying sheep on my TV screen
Make this boy shout, make this boy scream!
Going underground, I'm going underground!"